Google filed a patent application last year to refine their news-ranking algorithm for third time in the past nine years.  The Google News algorithm has long been a mystery, with few details publicly available.  Computerworld uncovered the document "while conducting an unrelated patent search on the United States Patent Office's website."  Nice find, huh?  The patent application provides a rare look at the underpinnings of the Google News machine, including specific criteria Google uses to rank news stories: The metrics cited in the patent application include: the number of articles produced by a news organization during a given time period; the average length of an article from a news source; and the importance of coverage from the news source.